In today's news, we have an epic blue post talking about all the PvP changes coming in 5.3--they should encourage more players to try PvP instead of being disheartened by a gear gap. We're also investigating the elusive source of a new battle pet, , and have a few new spell changes from a tiny 5.3 PTR build this morning.

PvP in 5.3

With the new scaling system in battlegrounds and arenas bringing everything down to ilvl 496, players behind on gear won't be as big of a squishy target for BiS-geared players--all that awesome PvE gear is getting scaled down. This new system also won't encourage players to keep their scaled-down raiding epics and ignore PvP gear, as the extra stats on PvP gear will give a survivability edge.

CM Nakatoir gave a few examples of players that could currently be discouraged by PvP--a progressed raider, and someone in starter-PvP gear, both wanting to try something new. In both scenarios, they get crushed by an opponent in Tyrannical gear. The raider, while doing decent damage, is squishy and dies a lot, while the person in PvP gear does poor damage and dies easily to someone in full Tyrannical gear.

While these scenarios were made up, they're fairly accurate based on player reactions to for Children's Week and / for Wrathion's legendary questline. Hopefully by changing the gearing system, PvP will be more enjoyable to players trying it out for the first time.

Unborn Val'kyr Source

The is one of the most anticipated battle pets coming in Patch 5.3, but its source has been a mystery to dedicated players on the PTR.

The PTR Patch Notes state the following: "Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend." In addition, the pet journal has this description: "Val'kyr are considered "unborn" until they vanquish a creature of high nobility."

So far it's looking like the pet spawns in the same area as some rare Northrend spawns, but more testing is always appreciated!

Click the cut to read about the 5.3 PvP changes and new PTR build!

5.3 PTR Build 16958

Hunter Pets

: Your wasp stings the target, stunning them for 2 sec.

Uncategorized

: You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 829 to 1065 (+ 60%75% of SpellPower) Fire damage. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal a critical strike.

PvP In Patch 5.3

Nakatoir

This one is a bit of an eyeful, so be prepared for a long post. I recommend reading the whole thing, but there is a TL;DR at the end. If my memory serves me well, this will be my biggest post since joining the community team! \\o/

Mírion has hit the nail on the head in pretty much all of his posts in this thread so far. Rated PvP has been seeing a decline in participants over time; however this is not because of balance issues as most people assume it to be. It is mostly due to the increased separation and distinction between PvP and PvE gear. As has been said, getting a full set of PvP gear is not really that hard in the sense of difficulty, but it is when you consider the grind and the feeling you get in those first few steps of PvP without the right gear.

I am sure that most, if not all of you here have at least once had the experience of entering into PvP either late in an expansion or season. If you have, then you know how difficult the process of getting your honor set and first few conquest pieces is. You start off by getting hit by trucks and attacking back with the damage of a wet noodle, as your gear gets better though, the experience improves and you start having fun. But you have to remember that it's those first few steps which are the most crucial to people continuing their PvP experience.

This separation of gear has caused a decrease over time in the number of PvP participants because the first few steps into PvP are so daunting for those who try it that the turnover results in a drop rather than an increase. For PvP, because so many people get scared away from it when they first have a go, you have much less "fresh blood", so to say. This ends up resulting in there not being enough new players sticking with PvP to compensate for those that decide to move onto something that is better suited to them.

Let's take two examples of people who are taking their first steps in PvP right now and making their decision if this is something they want to keep doing:

Player A is an established raider. They’re geared out in some pretty sweet ToT items, but wants to try out something new.

Players B is a freshly dinged level 90. They’re keen-eyed to try out PvP and has their crafted PvP set.

And to have them here to be used in the two below examples, Tyrannical, the BiS PvP geared player having a bit of fun in battlegrounds.

Now the below scenarios are extreme cases, you will not always be coming across a BiS person in PvP, and there are ways in which to increase your enjoyment when starting out such as playing with friends. While a lot of players will push through this initial hurdle and start to enjoy their time in PvP, I just want to give you some examples of what a first time experience can be.

Epic storytelling time #1:Player A:A enters an Arathi Basin match, bright-eyed and keen to try out this aspect of the game that's entirely new to them. The gates open for A and they charge off to Lumber Mill and engage their new-found foes. They are having a jolly time doing some decent damage and even scoring a kill while no one is attacks them, however then Tyrannical on the opposing side decides to attack A and he dies in an instant. A wonders what happened, but ignores the occurrence the first time.

A resurrects at base and heads out into the battle, but the same thing keeps happening — A goes into battle, gets attacked and dies. They get tired of this happening repeatedly and decide that PvP is not quite their cup of tea.

Epic storytelling time #2:Player B:B just got their Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's gear and an okay BoE weapon from the Auction House. They queue up for a battleground and get thrown into Twin Peaks, ready for battle they run out of the gates bearing down on the opponents flag, eager to capture it and bring glory to their team.

Another person manages to grab the flag before B can reach it, but that's okay — B now wants to go take down the enemy flag carrier. Little to B's knowledge, Tyrannical has the flag and is running along to bring it to their base. B intercepts Tyrannical and starts attacking as hard as he can but is doing little to take away from Tyrannical’s health. Tyrannical decides that the damage B is doing, while minimal, is becoming a nuisance, B is attacked and dies in moments. Like A, B ignores this first occurrence and decides to head back in to battle. But after this situation is repeated they become frustrated by doing so little damage and dying so quickly. They give up on PvP and move on to another aspect of the game where they feel they can make a more meaningful contribution.

As you can see, both players entered into PvP, bright-eyed and looking to have some fun, but they were met with a brick wall as they began their journey. Because of this brick wall that they encountered though, their motivation waned until they gave up and eventually decided to move to something else. The changes that we have planned for patch 5.3 are designed to improve the first time PvP’ers experience to try and increase the retention rate of newcomers to the scene.

The change will also ensure that PvP gear remains the best possible choice for PvP, do not fret over this. What we is to improve the experience for those starting out in PvP and as such increase the pool of players and the size of the community; which in-turn makes the experience of current PvP’ers playing the game that much better too.

TL;DR — The changes help increase the size of the PvP community and makes PvP more welcoming to new players, without making PvE gear BiS.However any additional gem sockets come at the cost of the Ilvl budget, lowering some other stats. Base stats will be near, if not exactly identical when scaling comes into account. The reason that PvP gear will be stronger is because of the PvP power stat that is not taken into account for the Ilvl budget on items.At this time Medallions still have Resilience on them, Insignias, Badges and Emblems do not have resilience. This can possibly change in the future, but right now we will be keeping an eye on trinkets to ensure that they do not become a problem.I was giving some examples of situations where players take their first few steps into PvP. The examples I gave were enough to display the point behind the post, any more would have just made it far too big for anyone to read.

anyway... without these double proc, how do you kill a healer?

Coordinating burst and having good CC timings and effective target swaps. I take it from your posts that you are referring to difficulties killing a healer solo, first off — bad idea; it's do-able, but I would definitely recommend going at them with a friend. Healers are built around the concept of being able to, if played well, keep a team of three players alive against another team of three players, generally 2 DPS and a healer. If a healer was designed to be taken down by a single player in a 1v1 situation, then what kind of hope would they have in keeping a group alive in arenas or battlegrounds?

Healers can be killed and are far from being immortal, you just need to apply the appropriate pressure and play your cards right.

begin with ... these trinket should not even exist, or certainly should not be allowed to use them in pvp.

these trinkets currently have a unique function spoil the game.

Those trinkets offer a different playstyle and have received multiple changes to adapt them for PvP. Not only this, but those trinkets will also be susceptible to the same effects of the Ilvl cap as every other piece of gear in patch 5.3.But I do understand where you are going with your post. But if the situation you give is accurate, then once that player reaches full BiS PvP gear, they will just stop until a new season comes around. A better way to entice people like this to play and continue to play is not to just offer them a way to enhance their characters power which is quite limited in how far it can go, but rather to also provide other rewards like those planned for patch 5.3. Some of the rewards we have planned are for when players reach 2500 rating, they can get a special tabard and a cloak. We also are thinking of potentially adding in rewards for accomplishments such as X number of RBG's or Arenas won.

Also, I am not sure where the progression of gear is being halved. The gear progression is no different from what it has been in previous seasons (Elite weapons being the exception), outside of the start of Season 13 where Elite gear was better than the normal one. In all previous seasons the progression was as follows:

Crafted PvP gear

Honor Gear

Conquest Gear

Elite weapon (Only one that was an upgrade)/cosmetic elite upgrades

Now the progress of gear will be as follows:

Crafted PvP gear

Honor Gear

Conquest Gear

Cosmetic upgrades

So in the end, the progression of gear has not really changed apart from the Elite weapon just becoming a cosmetic improvement. All this change is doing is leveling out the playing field a bit more to make entry into PvP a lot less daunting to help welcoming more people into the PvP community — this helps the entirety of the PvP community, even the player C you mentioned as they now have more people to play against.

You don't get ilvl 440 gear and go to take on Ra-Den.... that is why there is other raids and LFR to gear up and "progress" to finally take down Ra-Den one day. The point is to grind and get the gear to be able to do so.

Same with PvP. You don't just slap on gear and expect to take down a fully geared PvP player, that is just silly and should not be accomplished by someone with PvE gear.

PvE however has dungeons, heroics, LFR and then raiding in order to ease you into the process, so you are able to participate in gear appropriate content until you are able to enter raids. When a PvP player starts off their journey, they have no equivalent of dungeons where the health and damage of their opponent isn't insurmountable. They are thrown straight into a raid, where they have to overcome a raid boss with the gear you would normally use in a normal dungeon.

Why not make BG with a ilvl cap and pitch players with a certain amount of PvP ilvl against each other and those with better gear against their counterparts.

That's kind of what this change does, without diminishing the overall pool of players. It also accomplishes multiple other tasks as well, such as helping prevent PvE gear in PvP.

I was refering to the gear grind through the upgrade system in patch 5.1

This system got a lot of disapproval from the PvP community, from the feedback we received it was deemed best for it not to return in patch 5.2 or 5.3, which I am sure a lot of people here are glad to hear.

and, as you said, the expected elite gear in patch 5.2 which was abandoned during the first few weeks in favor of the 5.3 system.

This was removed because the gear inflation that would have occurred with season 14 would have been immense. Also, the difference between someone starting out in PvP and someone in full elite would have been too big. The new system for 5.3 was developed and deemed more appropriate and better for the community as a whole.

Комментарии

Комментарий от jynxycat

Why don't they add more things into the game that are intentionally left vague?

Bring back more RPG into this MMORPG which is a bit mechanical these days.

Комментарий от perculia

on 2013-05-16T13:15:53-05:00

I really like the little touches in Mists like this battle pet, Mistborn tribute, and things like the Relic Hunter :)

Комментарий от Jkpman

on 2013-05-16T13:36:31-05:00

Why don't they add more things into the game that are intentionally left vague?

Bring back more RPG into this MMORPG which is a bit mechanical these days.

But they don't remain vague for long, Within a few hours pretty much everything mysterious ends up on sites like this.This blog is a prime example of why they probably don't bother anymore. The Val'kyr isn't even close to live yet but any mystery in finding it is quickly dwindling.

Besides, when was the last time you closed all your add ons and didn't use database sites the second something started to stump you?

Комментарий от Iceveiled

on 2013-05-16T14:23:58-05:00

Whatever happened to earning your dues in PvP? You can't ding level 90 and immediatley hop into arenas hoping to do well. You queue for random battlegrounds (call to arms) and do the best you can. After a few matches you can start upgrading. If you spend an afternoon grinding battlegrounds it's not hard to get 3-4 pieces of PvP gear. You might win or you might lose, but if you're working hard you're going to be getting honor points regardless of how well you're doing.

It's not like I'm against the changes per se, I just think PvP is not for everyone, and blizzard is trying to make it for everyone, and the players who have put in the time and effort to gear up SHOULD have an advantage over those just beginning.

Комментарий от Zervana

on 2013-05-16T14:40:39-05:00

Whatever happened to earning your dues in PvP? You can't ding level 90 and immediatley hop into arenas hoping to do well. You queue for random battlegrounds (call to arms) and do the best you can. After a few matches you can start upgrading. If you spend an afternoon grinding battlegrounds it's not hard to get 3-4 pieces of PvP gear. You might win or you might lose, but if you're working hard you're going to be getting honor points regardless of how well you're doing.

It's not like I'm against the changes per se, I just think PvP is not for everyone, and blizzard is trying to make it for everyone, and the players who have put in the time and effort to gear up SHOULD have an advantage over those just beginning.

Massive stat inflation, that's what happened.Going into battlegrounds without pvp gear is pointless as you really can't do anything without getting nuked into next week within seconds of meeting someone with pvp gear.

Комментарий от Lordplatypus

on 2013-05-16T14:54:47-05:00

Translation: Our PvE crowd was QQing their easymode gear wasn't enough to fight in real fights, and we changed that.

Lower the gear rewards for raiding before touching something that takes actual skill to get.

Комментарий от Darkcaptain3

on 2013-05-16T15:12:35-05:00

Whatever happened to earning your dues in PvP? You can't ding level 90 and immediatley hop into arenas hoping to do well. You queue for random battlegrounds (call to arms) and do the best you can. After a few matches you can start upgrading. If you spend an afternoon grinding battlegrounds it's not hard to get 3-4 pieces of PvP gear. You might win or you might lose, but if you're working hard you're going to be getting honor points regardless of how well you're doing.

It's not like I'm against the changes per se, I just think PvP is not for everyone, and blizzard is trying to make it for everyone, and the players who have put in the time and effort to gear up SHOULD have an advantage over those just beginning.

Massive stat inflation, that's what happened.Going into battlegrounds without pvp gear is pointless as you really can't do anything without getting nuked into next week within seconds of meeting someone with pvp gear.

Yeah and because of this it makes it hard for those who are wearing pve gear and want to finally get into pvp but never have before to actually do well. The stats and their inexperience is the drawback. They are not probably used to needing to have as fast reflexes as they'll need because npc's and a real player are different. It would probably take someone days now to actually get 1 or 2 pieces of gear for pvp that is decent enough especially if they arent used to pvping at all.

Комментарий от Rankkor

on 2013-05-16T15:14:55-05:00

Translation: Our PvE crowd was QQing their easymode gear wasn't enough to fight in real fights, and we changed that.

Lower the gear rewards for raiding before touching something that takes actual skill to get.

Real Translation: You can't roflstomp people by having tyranical gear anymore, this time you actually have to *GASP´* Have skill, instead of lots of free time, in order to defeat others in pvp.

ohh my, what a dreadful destiny indeed.

Комментарий от spireplatonic

on 2013-05-16T15:20:20-05:00

Sorry, I thought PvP was supposed to be about player skill, not grinding gear? I will be fine if all I get from PvP is vanity items that can not be obtained elsewhere, make PvP gear available to craft (gives Professions a much needed boost) and let us duke it out and compare skills instead of hours grinding. My ipeen can be seen from the vanity pieces/mounts/other I purchase using the Honor and Conquest points I obtain or the number of RBG's I win.

Комментарий от Tomwatson4

on 2013-05-16T15:56:28-05:00

I have tried PvP before, there is nothing to it. Go into a battleground, and kill people. No skill at all. I just don't have any interest in grinding 2 sets of gear. I have better things to do with my WoW time. Like learn about the lore of the game, and enjoying laughing at the asshats in trade. So, until Blizz makes 1 set of armor that can be worn everywhere, I'll just pass, thank you.

Комментарий от Wowpixel

on 2013-05-16T17:13:35-05:00

"As you can see, both players entered into PvP, bright-eyed and looking to have some fun, but they were met with a brick wall as they began their journey."

Wait until they hit a mob of bots, and see that fun reduced to: which team with the least amount of bots (or multiboxers) wins.

make PvP gear available to craft (gives Professions a much needed boost) and let us duke it out and compare skills instead of hours grinding.

Комментарий от Voranil

on 2013-05-16T17:35:48-05:00

so now that all gear will have the same item level in instanced pvp, what will be the point of getting conquest gear now? might as well just get an honor set and be done. as for world pvp, the 522 vendor items will be far better than any pvp gear now that pvp power has been nerfed.

indeed, blizz are expecting more subs to drop in the coming months.

Комментарий от Tertiam

on 2013-05-16T18:09:38-05:00

School of Hard Knocks is, I believe, at least partially responsible for the general hatred of PvP from primarily PvE players. I know it, among other experiences, helped seal my negative opinion of PvP.

Комментарий от narkh

on 2013-05-16T18:46:35-05:00

While I gladly appreciate the effort Blizzard makes into bridging the gap between longtimer pvp-ers & newcomers, I'm not really keen on the solutions devs chose to bring in 5.3. I've started playing WoW slightly over a year ago during cata, and started pvp by October or so last year, so as a matter of fact, I'm one of those players who joined a season quite late and had to go through the gearing process. But even back then, I assumed from the start two things: 1) I'll have my troll face handed over to the opposite team because all my gear is pve and they probably have full (current season) pvp gear... Damn, why didn't I start pvp earlier? Oh well, I guess everyone had to do it too at some point... Let's persevere and gear up! The excitement of building the set days after days..... 2) once my gear is fully pvp, I'll STILL have my troll face handed over because pvp is not only about gear, it's also about skills, about knowing each bg tactics, goals, objectives, dedicate yourself to defend a location instead of 'farm middle'.... and all this take a lot of time to learn and apply properly.I think this made sense for me back then, and it should make sense for everyone else starting pvp.

Reducing the ilvl for everyone down to 496, bringing everyone's resilience to 65%, battle fatigue, modifications on tanks & healing during ctf maps.... will (I think) seriously upset players who work hard to get their gear, players who developped their own way to play with 67/68+ resilience, and IMO, quite a good chunk of pvp player base and Blizzard may end up with not such a satisfying solution.

Just throwing my two cents here but.... Blizzards wants to help newcomers to pvp and reduce the gap between gear? Then Blizzard could create instances of battleground dedicated to low ilvl pvp gear players where they could get faster honor, faster conquest. Same apply for rbg.And Blizzard would both achieve their two goals: reduce the gear gap to help bring more people into pvp AND keep the current player base satisified.

Комментарий от elionor

on 2013-05-16T18:51:48-05:00

if i cared enough to get pvp gear squishienes would not be a problem also would be the point of pursuing best in slot PVP gear if will just get scaled down in the dungeon?

Комментарий от Dinbar

on 2013-05-16T18:55:53-05:00

Ok, im really sad that they're removing resillience from pvp gear. I mean, healers are really getting crapped on with this upcoming patch. All we have is PvP power, but that can easily be overpowered with a heroic weapon...

Комментарий от Dinbar

on 2013-05-16T18:57:08-05:00

Also, if the baddies in PvP are mad about getting killed so much, why don't they just work to earn the nice gear instead of taking the same amount of damage as everyone else in battlegrounds and arenas...

Комментарий от Dinbar

on 2013-05-16T19:00:28-05:00

That actually sounds like a really good idea to make a separate battleground for low pvpers

Комментарий от lightclaw

on 2013-05-16T19:21:36-05:00

The thing that I find keeps my non-PvP friends from wanting to PvP has absolutely nothing to do with gear imbalance. It's poor sportsmanship, plain and simple. At least half the time I get into a Twin Peaks or WSG, the other team is a 7/10 premade and they farm kills rather than cap the flag, acting like jerks the entire time.

People realize that they're going to get hammered while they've got the wrong gear, and there are lots of great people who PvP, but newbies (and experienced players) just don't want to deal with the significant number of fun-suckers who are present in random BGs. It's like going to listen to a concert that is 80% Vienna Boys Choir and 20% Fran Drescher. The good part is fantastic, but the bad part ruins it. You have to really enjoy what you're doing in order to stick around, and every teabagging idiot out there who has numerous macros to laugh at every player he kills makes that enjoyment less likely.

Комментарий от Dracomortis

on 2013-05-16T19:33:44-05:00

"Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend."

If it turns out that the Val'kyr does indeed pop up near Northrend rare spawns, then this initial hint is incredibly clever. We assumed "pet tamers" meant battle pets, but what if it meant hunters (i.e. the class that tames pets)?